Instant Pot Chickpeas

How to cook chickpeas aka garbanzo beans in your instant pot. Using soaked or un-soaked dried beans, cooking your chickpeas from scratch will save you not only time but money too!  

The cost of food has gone up tremendously over the past few months. Not only have prices increased, but over the past few years the sizes of items keep shrinking. Recently when I purchased my dried chickpeas, the normal brand I buy was sold out. I started looking for other brands and noticed that no longer do they sell them as a full pound of beans, but rather 12 ounces or 14 ounces. My brand is a full pound for the same price as the other brands! $2.19 for the pound of beans. Bargain for plant protein if it is the full pound.

Chickpeas and all pulses have multiple components that when combined with an overall balanced diet have been shown to help prevent many chronic diseases: diabetes, heart disease, and more! Chickpeas are rich in fiber, folate (vitamin B₉), manganese, and other minerals. Several studies do suggest that including chickpeas in one’s diet may help improve cholesterol levels and reduce blood sugar. Whether you choose to buy canned chickpeas or make them homemade, this dietitian encourages you to include more chickpeas into your diet, any way you can!

Ingredients: Dried Chickpeas

1. Dried Chickpeas: To put things into perspective for amounts: 1 pound of dried beans = 3 cups of dried beans = 6 – 7 cups of cooked beans. 1 2/3 – 2 cups of cooked beans = 1 can of canned (14 – 16 oz.) beans. This 1 pound of dried beans will give you the equivalence of 3 cans of beans. With your dried chickpeas, do pick them over. Small stones and/or debris could be mixed in, so sift through and discard any debris.
2. Salt: Using a teaspoon of salt for the pound of beans adds a little bit of flavor without too much add sodium – ~164 mg per 1/2 cup. You could also add a few cloves of garlic and a 1/4 of an onion, which will also add more flavor. Feel free to cut back on the salt by half, but do add a little
3. Herbs: While I didn’t add any this time, you could add a couple of bay leaves, a few sprigs of thyme and/or rosemary. Keeping them basic, allows for you to use the chickpeas in other dishes (which we’ll do) and that’s where I’ll add more flavors for each individual dish.
4. Water: I simply used water for the cooking liquid. To add some extra depth, you could use a vegetable and/or chicken broth/stock. Keep in mind this could add more sodium to the chickpeas. Remember, cook the beans first and then add all the flavor. Plus water is free and we’re being economical here!

How To Cook Dried Chickpeas

To soak or not to soak, that is the question! Soaking will not only cut down on the cooking time, but also help to reduce the effects of bloating/gas. While you can make the beans without soaking – you might be thinking, who has the time for that? – it is a step I recommend, not only for the above mentioned benefits, but also because they end up turning out better. Believe me, I’ve tried them both ways. Soak them overnight, which is the perfect amount of time. Consider it an extra worthwhile step.

1. Unsoaked: Giving directions for unsoaked, but aim to soak them (if you can remember!) Cook on the manual setting at HIGH pressure for 45 minutes with 15 minute natural release. Use 5 cups of liquids (water and/or broth).
2. Soaked: Chickpeas soaked overnight can be pressured cooked on the manual setting at HIGH pressure for 15 minutes and allowing 15 minutes natural release. Use at least 4 cups of water – have at least 2 inches of water above the beans. If your beans soaked longer than 8 hours, you *might* even be able to get by with cooking for just 12-14 minutes. My instant pot takes ~10 minutes to heat up. I didn’t include that in the total cook time.

Perfectly cooked chickpeas. Ready to be used in any dish where you’d use a can of chickpeas! Marinated chickpeas, roasted chickpeas, hummus, you name it! I’m currently working on writing down these recipes for you. In the meantime, it’s summer in Miami, so keep that instant pot out and make some of my other recipes for the pressure cooker (see below!) No one has time to stand over a hot stove!

OTHER INSTANT POT RECIPES

• Homemade Applesauce
• Black Beans
• Steel Cut Pumpkin Oats
• Butternut Squash Risotto

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